Money laundering: Court temporarily freezes 21 bank accounts and orders arrest of the account owners

A Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered the interim freezing of 21 bank accounts across multiple commercial banks over allegations of money laundering. 

Presiding judge Emeka Nwite also directed the police to arrest the owners of the accounts.

The judge granted the order on Friday, January 3, following a motion ex parte marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1965/V/2024, filed by Ibrahim Mohammed, counsel for the Inspector-General of Police (IGP). The order mandates the banks to “issue details of the account package(s) and to place a post-no-debit (PND) on the accounts, disable the ATMs while allowing inflow into the said accounts” pending the conclusion of the investigation.

“I have listened to the submission of the learner counsel for the applicant and gone through the affidavit evidence,” Nwite stated. “I am of the view that the motion ex parte is meritorious. The application is hereby granted except that the period of the investigation can only last for a period of 90 days.”

The motion ex parte submitted by the IGP’s counsel argued that the accounts were under investigation for allegedly warehousing proceeds of unlawful activities or fraud.

“If there is any dealing with the accounts by way of withdrawal or transfer to another account by the person under investigation/investigator and the person that has absolute power to deal with the account, it will render nugatory any consequential order(s) which the court may make at the conclusion of this application,” Mohammed stated.

An affidavit attached to the motion, filed by Glory Ohio, a detective with the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) attached to the Force Criminal Investigation Department, outlined the details of the case. Ohio stated that the IGP had received a petition involving allegations of stealing and breach of trust, which preliminary investigations revealed to involve money laundering.

“That the complainant alleged that he needs a special purpose vehicle company to enable him to secure the contract with the Nigerian Navy, which led him to enter a joint venture agreement with the defendant, who has the company name Indetix Limited,” the affidavit reads. Ohio explained that the petitioner had been awarded a contract to supply ICT equipment and accessories, wooden canoes, outboard engines, inverter batteries, and firefighting equipment to the Nigerian Navy. Both parties reportedly opened a joint account with Zenith Bank, where they were signatories.

The affidavit stated, “That both parties concerned drafted a memorandum of understanding and a clause spelt the sum of 15% of the profit to be paid to the defendant and parties appended their signatures. The Nigerian Navy disbursed the contract sum in installments to be used in the execution of the contract.”

However, tensions arose when the complainant received a letter from the suspect proposing a revision of the initial agreement from 15% of the profit to 7.5% of the total contract sum. “The petitioner disagreed with the proposal and the new terms intended to be smuggled into the parties’ earlier agreement,” the affidavit continued.

The refusal allegedly led the suspect to send a “purported company resolution” to the bank, removing the petitioner as a signatory to the joint account, effectively making himself the sole signatory.

“That his act was motivated in furtherance of his clandestine motives to steal from the joint account, and he did steal money under the guise of the purchase of the board engine,” the affidavit alleged.

Ohio further claimed that the suspect transferred the contract sum from the joint account to various other accounts to disguise the origin of the funds. “The purported money disbursed for the purchase of the engine board was later transferred back to the suspect via a different account from the joint account,” the detective added.

The affidavit concluded that intelligence reports indicated ongoing attempts by the suspects to withdraw or transfer funds from the accounts, emphasizing that without the court’s intervention, the investigation could be compromised. The case has been adjourned to April 3 for mention.